Leicester snare unconvincing win but lose out in battle of style

Sunday 4 January 2009 19.06 EST
First published on Sunday 4 January 2009 19.06 EST

Leicester do not know when, or if, their head coach Heyneke Meyer will return from compassionate leave in South Africa, but their ability to grind out unmerited and unconvincing victories remains unparalleled. Outplayed for three-quarters of the game and trailing by 13 points with nine minutes of normal time remaining, they could afford to miss a penalty from virtually in front of the posts in the dying ­seconds and still claim the points.

Bath not only blew the opportunity to return to the top of the table but also strike a blow for the dying breed in European rugby who are blessed by a sense of adventure and refuse to dim their attacking intent. For nearly 70 minutes, Bath made Leicester look pedestrian in thought and deed and the visitors' third try deserves to be replayed for many a year.

It was created by the outside-half Butch James after he received a kick near his own 25: as Leicester defenders dropped deep, he chipped the ball 20 yards in front of him, gathered it cleanly, slipped the subtlest of passes to Joe Maddock outside him on the right, collected the return and ran towards the Leicester line before flicking the ball back to Maddock.

Leicester did not lack intent but there was little subtle about them. Instead, they possessed the grit that is essential for any side aspiring to be successful in the Premiership. In contrast, Bath ran from everywhere and James varied his game so cleverly that Geordan Murphy, often the sharpest of the Tigers' claws, became a broken nail and was fortunate not to see a penalty that had been awarded to his side reversed after he made a derogatory remark to the referee, Chris White.

The Bath head coach, Steve Meehan, afterwards pointed to the fact that the last 15 minutes were played with uncontested scrums after Martin Castrogiovanni, who endured a miserable 50 minutes playing out of position at loose-head prop following an earlier head injury suffered by Boris Stankovich, limped off with a bad back. Bath had been on top in the scrum, and Meehan questioned the severity of Castrogiovanni's injury. "Who knows if their props were injured," he said. "They seemed to be walking around OK afterwards. I did not see much wrong with them. I am not saying the scrums becoming uncontested was the sole reason we lost, but it did not help because it gave them an opportunity for quick ball."

Leicester fans cried cheat when Worcester resorted to uncontested scrums here last September, but there were no complaints yesterday. The Tigers had started their comeback two minutes before Castrogiovanni's departure with the England flanker Tom Croft scoring the first of his two tries and a key scrum came when the Bath full-back, Nick Abendanon, dropped a routine kick just inside his own half. It conceded the position from where Leicester mounted a series of drives which ended with Croft crossing in the corner and having the presence of mind not to touch down the ball until he was close enough to the posts to ensure Derick Hougaard had a reasonable chance of kicking the extras.

There was still time for Justin Harrison, who along with Michael Lipman dropped to the bench from the starting line-up after picking up a stomach bug overnight, to be sent to the sin-bin after he engaged in a head-to-head with George Chuter, and it was then that Bath fell apart. Instead of pushing on from Maddock's try and going for the bonus point victory, they sat back and invited Leicester on.

The better, bolder side ended up losing. The crowd was so quiet in the opening half that it seemed 1,800 rather than 18,000 souls were locked inside. Bath were dominant, tries from Stuart Hooper and Pieter Dixon poor reward for their superiority. A James chip ahead ended with Alex Crockett claiming a try but Shontayne Hape was ruled to have knocked on and there was no sign of a revival from the Tigers after the interval until Croft forced his way over.

Meyer returned to South Africa last Tuesday because of a serious illness to both his wife's parents. The Leicester chairman, Peter Tom, admitted the Tigers feared that the South African may not return, adding the position would be reassessed in a couple of weeks. "Family has to come first," he said. Meyer was on the telephone to his deputy, Richard Cockerill, yesterday morning. "Heyneke did all the planning for the game and he will be delighted with the win, but we did not play well enough overall and have some fixing to do," said Cockerill.